RomanPunks is a retrofuturistic, cyberpunk derivative world-building project inspired by fine art, history and the cryptopunk movement.
A total of 1,000 RomanPunk characters have been frozen in time and minted as Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum, WAX, Polygon and Algorand blockchains.
RomanPunk characters are comprised of commoners and famous individuals based on Roman history, art history and pop culture.
The basis for RomanPunk lore and backstories is exhaustively researched by history/sci-fi buff and co-founder, Punktavian.
All images are drawn by hand by woman artist and co-founder, Cleopunktra, without the aid of AI or generative tools.
RomanPunks came into existence through early minting on OpenSea, promoting on Twitter and building a Discord community through giveaways and engagement. The idea of a cyberpunk-derivative ‘RomanPunk’ theme was in our heads for years, but it was the success of the Cryptopunks that became the catalyst for project conception and launch.
After a hard working first 60 days spent networking and attracting new collectors to RomanPunks, our community had begun to flourish and sales increased. We began to offer our collectors an opportunity to battle their NFTs in a tournament bracket powered by dice rolls.
Encouraged by the tight knit community and the carbon-neutral blockchain with lightning fast and low cost transactions, we launched 'romanpunksio' collection on WAX Blockchain as the first step to expand the backstories of our RomanPunk characters and the baseline for future development of a card game.
RomanPunks integrated with Chainlink Labs to utilize VRF (Verified Randomness Function) to host a giveaway raffle for our holders. We developed a smart contract on Ethereum which guarantees true random number selection on chain and can be used for a wide range of functions that require random selection.
After much anticipation in the community, we released our first WAX NFT card 'pack' through the Neftyblocks platform, which sold out in less than a week.
We launched our Twitch channel and begun building an audience by offering numerous giveaways of WAX NFTs from our collection, as well as giving participants a chance to win RomanPunk ETH NFT airdrops for taking top spot at the end of the 'season'.
As firm believers in a metaverse future and land owners in The Sandbox, we undertook to build the RomanPunk Colosseum on 1x1 land and entered our experience "Gladiator Bloodsport" into a GameJam contest. We will continue to build the Colosseum into a PVP arena and social hub once The Sandbox offers creators the ability to do so.
Thanks to the user friendly tools offered by NeftyBlocks, we launched a comprehensive blending system on WAX, allowing our collectors to blend the common NFTs they earn in our Discord RPG up into Legendary famous NFTs through the use of blending 'coins' that can also be earned on the Discord as reward for helping to promote the RomanPunks project.
We launched the VX collection on Polygon. Each owner of an ETH NFT gets their voxel equivalent airdropped to them, and these NFTs can be redeemed for official NFTs on The Sandbox Marketplace once available.
All 1,000 original, unique 1:1 RomanPunk characters hand drawn by Cleopunktra and minted on OpenSea.
The RomanPunk WAX NFT Trading Card Fighter Pack Series II consists of 3 NFTs randomly selected from over 236 characters.
Upcoming plans for RomanPunks include:
Below is a comprehensive and searchable directory of all 1,000 RomanPunk Characters.
Born in 355 AD on the shores of the Black Sea, Hilda Cixilo was raised in blood by warrior parents who trained them in battles against the Huns. After collecting 80 heads in the Battle of Adrianople, Hilda went on to distinguish herself in Mastaura as an undefeated gladiator.
Born 1113 AD in Cemenelum in an alternate steampunk dimension, Marina is a wreck diver and sailor on the Aqua Aeterna, the world’s first steam-powered submarine, whose mission is to find the lost city of Atlantis. Guided by the clues left by Plato and Seneca, the ship’s crew ventured into the Aztec Gulf, where Marina uncovered an interdimensional portal nestled on the ocean floor.
Born in 217 AD in Caesarea, Mavis, a servant of the Temple of Saturn at Thugga, uttered an experimental incantation, opening an interdimensional portal that transported her to a parallel world set in an atomic age in which she became enslaved as a gladiator.
Born 150 BC in Pella, Myrta, daughter of the last independent king of Macedon, boldly claims lineage from the mother of Alexander the Great. Emulating her tyrannical father, the pretender known as ‘Pseudo-Philip’, Myrta leads a mysterious cult with interdimensional powers, summoning extraterrestrial beings to aid her quest of terror and repression to reclaim her ‘ancestral’ Macedonian throne.
Born 2190 AD in Naissus, Varik rose to prominence as the head of an interdimensional conglomerate specializing in nano processors for A.I. star freighters. Secretly harbouring a licentious penchant for cyborg supermodels, he turns a blind eye to his wife Lexia’s nocturnal indulgences, as the two maintain an unblemished public facade for the good of the company and the empire.
Born 2001 AD in Transylvania, Morty lives in an ancient castle and spends all his time immersed in the metaverse, not knowing there is a working interdimensional time portal in an oubliette between the walls.
Born 1705 AD in Kyoto, Satoshi, a diplomat, discovered an interdimensional portal while on a trip to Rome and never looked back. He now travels across time and space in search of Shangri-la.
Robovid XLV is an advanced cybernetic model created by Vitruvian Systems of the Eternal Dominion that infiltrates human society by masquerading as key individuals across multiple dimensions in order to manipulate the system from within. This particular model is trained in advanced rhetoric and tuned for relentless ambition to be deployed at the highest echelons of society.
Born 151 BC in Prusa, Aulus is an autistic scribe and bastard son of Prusias II; he discovered the secret for interdimensional travel on a Babylonian scroll, but didn’t think anyone would care.
Born in 2050 AD in Neo-Volubilis, Juba is a bartender who runs a tiki bar at an opulent luxury resort in Neo-Carthage. Outside of crafting cocktails, he secretly supports cloned Hannibal Barca’s rebellion by providing access to their subterranean rebel base through a hidden entrance under the hotel pool.
Born 420 AD in Ostia, Bluto is a Bacchanalian degenerate and former slave who gained his freedom by blackmailing his treasonous master who also allowed Bluto to hold an endless toga party in his expansive villa, which lasted until this Broski perished of alcohol poisoning and an overdose of the munchies.
Born in 2143 AD in Ancyra in the crypto haven of Galatia, Brogitarius is a digital art dealer and influencer who tokenizes ancient frescoes on the Ethereum blockchain and flips them for huge profit to extraterrestrial degens looking to adorn the metaverse walls of their interstellar ark ships. Brogitarius spends most of his time attending interdimensional NFT conferences, flipping memecoins and farcasting new art drops to the outer reaches of the galaxy.
Born 702 AD in Glasgow, Gwyn Der Fyn, daughter of a tapestry dealer, travels across space and time in search of the hottest shopping malls with the best deals on interstellar jewelry.
Born 266 AD in Trento, Uto was part of the mysterious Cthulu Cohort that, disappeared in a cave and returned as cybernetic drones puppeteered by an extradimensional alien force loyal to Emperor Diocletian.
Backstory:
Born in 92 AD in Petra, Omar saw the annexation of the Nabataean kingdom by the Emperor Trajan as a teenager. Rather than live under the Roman yoke, Omar fled into the desert and was believed to have traveled through a dimensional portal in Egypt.
